I'm in a
Funk.

I miss the days when
I could find happiness
with two Matchbox
cars
and a plush carpet.

Now I find it in
Alcohol and
Cigarettes.

Even that is starting to get old.

It doesn't give me the same
Joy to
Drink or
Smoke anymore.

I guess that is just the way things go.

Always trying to find new
Ways to make us
Happy,
Yet, always putting
our selves in situations
to make ourselves Unhappy.

Our Jobs,
Our Relationships,
Our Life,
Always looking for a balance.

Rarely finding one.

What happens when you find that nothing makes you Happy?

My eyes on her,
her eyes on me,
and as we touch,
our souls I see.

In a blaze of light,
in a flash I see,
all that's left,
is right for me.

For beautiful she doth seem
When she can be heard
But not be seen.

The alcohol in me helps me a lot
It lets me see her beauty
Though she has not.

being
ALONE
sucks.

i smoke too many cigarettes
when i am
ALONE;
and i am
ALONE
a lot.

i draw pictures
ALONE;
of people who are
ALONE.

i listen to love songs on the radio
ALONE;
which makes me hate being
ALONE
that much more.

the funny thing is,
i wouldn't have written this poem
about being
ALONE
if i wasn't
ALONE
right now.

It's late at night
I'm lying in bed
Polluting my breath

I blow out my candle
Extinguish my cigarette
And write another day off to death.

I may have just
fucked
my life up by turning left.

by turning left
I cut someone off.
I changed the person's mood behind me.
they could have been happy thinking
about something else, but now
I pissed them off.

this mood change could have changed the way
they think and will change what they have to say
when they get where they are going.

change the words that they say to their friends.
They may then, in turn, influence their friends
to behave in a manner
that they wouldn't have if
I hadn't cut someone off.

this other person is now upset
because
I cut someone off.

this person, who is now upset,
may now call in sick to work
(these things happen)
the manager of this place
gets mad because the person
called in sick.
the next time the person goes
to work they have a fight with
the manager.
the manager fires this person.
because I cut someone off.

Elsewhere there is a girl
who is looking for a job
and she applies to this place
and the manager hires her
because he just fired someone
because I cut someone off.

A few weeks down the road
I meet this girl
and ask her on a date
but she can't go out because
she has to work late
in fact, she has to work all week
and I never go out with her
(I could have married her).

I may have just
fucked
my life up because I turned left.

You are never as
Alone
As you think
You are.

The only thing
Cool about
Peace
and
Anarchy
are their symbols.

Nice guys
finish
last.

Here I am
12:13 in the
morning
smoking a cigarette
finishing last again.

Thinking of a
girl
and listening to Vivaldi
(those sad love songs got too depressing)

Alone
again,
something's never change,
I can't, so I'll finish
last
Again.

Girls all talk about
how they
would like
a nice guy,
but they don't,
they want someone
that will
treat
them like
shit
every once in a while
to show them that
they care
I don't and I finish last.

What the
fuck
some thing's never change
it's 12:21 in the morning
and I'm
finishing last again.
Alone.

When will someone
finish
me off?

Two guys were walking
down a
street one day
(both of them smoked socially for sometime now).

"Where did you go
this morning?"

"I went out to buy
smokes."

"At 9:00 in the
morning?
You know what that is a sign of
don't you?"

"Yeah,"
he said looking down.
"That my
life
sucks."

I once read
on the wall
of a MG repair shop
"Don't do it if it ruins the fantasy."

I
did it
and I
ruined the fantasy.

I wanted so badly
the things that I sought
that I found
them;
even though they
weren't
really
there.

I discarded
advice
that rings true
Now
because I didn't
want
to believe
it before.

But now,
it
all
makes
sense
to me.

In some
strange
sick
sense I
see.

I hope
I won't
replay
my life
as I did
before.

please.

What
a
silly
sad
son of a bitch
I am.

Thinking about
a girl
that hasn't called
in a week.

Wondering
what went
wrong.

No words
no reasons
no explanations
just a sinking feeling
inside
that another one is
gone.

Not knowing what
qualities I have
or
how to use them.

Another
one gets
away.

Leaves me
drinking a Little Kings
and smoking Generals Lights
(as if it being a Light is
better for me)
wondering
what
went
wrong.

Just enough
pride
not to call her
but not enough
to move on.

I sit here drinking
and smoking
and wondering
and waiting;
waiting for
the games to end.
because I don't
know how to
play them.

I am sitting
in a laundry
mat
smoking a
cigarette

And I
wonder
why
my life
sucks.

I guess
I'm
just destined to be
Alone.

I don't want
a relationship
that begins with
sex.
It'll never amount
to anything
more
than
that.

If I try to

begin
a relationship
by talking first
they lose interest in
me
because they think
I don't want
them sexually ever.

Oh, woman,
my better half
where
are
you?

he looked at her
with the moon on her face
everything in the world
was in its right place
but nothing he could do
would ever erase
the things she had done to him.

Working on my
6th
Genesee Cream Ale

I've pissed 7
or 8
times tonight

Smoked
half dozen
cigarettes
or so

Haven't
shaved
in about
a
week

And
I
wonder why
I
can't get
a girlfriend.

My old girlfriend thinks men are like a
roll of toilet paper.

Each man is a separate sheet
She might pull two or three
sheets off at a time
wipe her ass with them
and then flush them away.

She isn't worried because she
can see there is
more.

What I want to see
is what she'll do when
she gets to the
last
sheet.

She spread wide her legs
for me to behold,
the reason for life
that has never been told.

I saw the beginning of time,
the sun and
the moon,
whole galaxies and universes
sprung forth from her womb.

As I walked through that door
to the fountain of truth,
I felt the heavens surge through me
releasing my youth.

That was some time ago
now I realize
What her fountain had told me
was really just lies.

I'm in your thoughts,
I'm in your dreams,
The words I say are what they mean;

I take your soul,
You take from me,
But you are blind and cannot see;

That what I do,
Is what you want,
Your thoughts of me will always haunt;

In your words,
And in your mind,
Parts of me you will always find;

I'm everywhere,
And you're with me,
That's where you'll stay eternally.

Drunk
Fucked up
I'm surprised I can still write

Dark room
Dirty dishes in the sink
Dirty clothes on the floor
Alone, I sit.

Nothing on TV
Nobody home
Drunk, this sucks

Nothing to do
No place to go
No money

I guess I'll just drink more
smoke more
Sit in my dark room
stare at a blank wall
and wait for something.

Women are from Venus,
Men have a penis.
Beer makes you choke,
I need another smoke,
We drink and puke and then we cry,
And by the toilet we all must lie.

I suppose I
flatter
myself
by thinking that
people
want to
read what I
write.

This is what
I've
come to
understand about
love,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
of course,
I
could
be
wrong.

I stand in a meadow
Ignoring the beauty
that's all around
thinking only of myself
and feeling down

The wind rustles the grass,
a bird flies by,
I think only of myself
and keep asking, why?

The sun shines down
making beautiful this
peaceful place,
thinking only of myseld,
I stare into space

I do not understand,
I do not comprehend,
I think only of myself
and wonder to what end?

I stand in a meadow
Ignoring this
beautiful day
thinking only of myself
I slowly walk away.

As words fall softly from your lips
and land upon my ear;
my mind and body are caressed
by every word I hear

When I hear your sweet voice in my head
My brain begins to numb
If this is what you do to me
I like what I've become.

So speak my sweet, please speak to me,
I need to hear your voice,
I've become a slave to it,
I have no other choice.

Far wiser men
Than I
Have thought far wiser thoughts
Than I

(They just never wrote them down.)

What is the word
"God"
Besides an arbitrary group of letters
Representing an idea we can not comprehend?

What kind of Person
have I become,
when I
can't stand the
thought
of having to
think?

On my job,
at 2 in the morning,
the roar of machines in
my ears
and the thoughts of things
I've left undone in
my mind.

I can't stand it.

What have I become?

I guess I have plenty of time
to think
about it.

Hey Moon!

What's going on?

You just sit up there
glowing, through no fault of you own.

We are here,
scurrying around
doing things,
not
doing things,
thinking about things we should be
doing
but are afraid to do.

Makes no difference to you
what we do.

But did you hear
what they want to do?

They want to say you are
a planet!

I say "No you can't!
She's the Moon!
The Moon I tell you!"

But they won't listen.

You will.
You have more time
to listen,
than I have time
to speak.

Our inability to communicate
effectively
lends itself to amazing
opportunities
for deceit.

And we, thinking we are
smart
enough to figure out what
others
really mean by the words they use,
embrace
in this
deceit.

People tell me that
smoking
is bad for me.

They probably are right
but,

I will not die from second hand
smoke.
It will be my own.

If I didn't
smoke,
I would never go outside.
I would have no reason to.

Is my logic flawed?

I suppose so,
but then
so am I.

It's not that we are
lazy
or dispassionate in our
beliefs;
We just
hate
different things.

It is easier to
hear
what others have to
say,

Than to
think
of something to
say
for ourselves.

It is more convenient for us to
regurgitate
other peoples ideas.

Than to
create
ideas of our own.

I think for the most part LaRochofocould was right,

"We are lazier in mind than in body."

But, which is worse?

Being
lazier
in the mind
or being
lazier
in the body?

Doing without out
thinking
things out for yourself,

or

Thinking
things out for yourself,
but not doing?

What good does it do
to think a great thought
without ever acting on it?

Hmmm.....

Either we are all
thinking
great thoughts
or
we really are not doing much of anything.

Does this offend you?

Good.

At least now you are
thinking
of ways to rebuke me.

Like I am.

Sometimes
writing is like
sitting on a toilet
when
you're constipated.

It may be a long
time before
anything comes out
that makes you feel
better.

But it's still just shit.

Someone once asked me where they could find
happiness.
I told them
"right here"
and showed them a penny.

I remember once,
when I was little
and we were moving
and all my toys were packed,
I had nothing to do.
So my folks gave me a
dish full of
pennies
to play with.

That was cool.

Pushing the pennies around on the carpet
making different shapes with them
by arranging them in different ways.

If you can find Happiness in little, insignificant things,
You can find it anywhere.

I went to see
God
today.

I asked him,
"I try to do good,
why don't
things
work out
for me?"

YOU ARE A COWARD.
YOU DO GOOD BECAUSE
YOU ARE
AFRAID
TO DO WRONG.

" oh," I said and walked away.

I had one more
question
to ask,
but I was
afraid to.

People say
alcohol is a depressant.

I don't believe them.

Life
is
a
Depressant.

It's amazing
that
what Chance can do
with
one try,
You
couldn't do with a
thousand.

I don't want
to
be able
to
buy all of my dreams

then I would have no dreams left.

And,
to be honest with you,
I'm not that happy with reality.

It seems to have
come
to the point
where
thinking can be eliminated
as a
reason for
action.

More so, it can be said,

thinking is the cause
of inaction.

You don't do something
because you
thought
about doing it.

You do something
because you
stopped
thinking
about doing it.

Getting a
job
is like
getting a
girlfriend.

It is very hard to get a good one
but,
once you do,

everyone wants to go out with you.

If life is so tough,
how can it be
so easy
to get to heaven?

exactly.

I left my parents
umbrella of
protection.

I went out to build
my own.

but,
you know what?

It's kind of hard to build in the rain.

I'm a perfectionist.

It's just that my idea
of perfection
is much lower than everyone else's.

I don't ever
want
to know
how smart I am.

Then,
I might find out
that I'm not as
clever
as I think I am.

Her eyes,
  a tranquil blue;
Her hair,
  a peaceful brown;
No feature on her was amiss,
And nor could one be found.

Beauty itself
  was unleashed,
Upon
  this amazing creature;
Nature took her time with her,
And perfected every feature.

Her lips,
  the color,
   the perfect form.
Her face,
  the perfect frame.
One look at her and I knew,
That I would never be the same.

Two Idiots
meet
in the night.

They have a
conversation
and walk
away.

Both of them think they are
smarter than
the other.

I suppose that I would
want
more out of life...

If this was
all
that I thought I was going to
get.

They say
"A pictures worth a thousand words."

I tell you this,

I wouldn't trade a thousand
words
for one
picture.

interesting,
these thoughts.

Dripping from
my mind like a faucet.
drip.
drip.
drip.

One after
the other.

My thoughts on relationships

drip.

My thoughts on love

drip.

My thoughts on life

drip.

Interesting.

Being depressed
yet, being aware of
the sensation of
depression.
Noticing what
this feeling
does to me...

the way it makes
my heart
heavy.

I can't wallow in my
depression
when I am intrigued
by this emotion.

Interesting.

Not being able to feel
these emotions
without being curious
as to how they make me feel.

the bitterness doesn't taste so bitter,
the sweetness doesn't taste so sweet,

when you notice them,
are aware of them.

Interesting.

How unemotional emotions are when you know what
you feel,
but don't feel it.

Interesting.

Nothing is as easy as it
seems...

Maybe that's because
we
make things
seem
too easy.

An orange is
what I'd like
to have
and I'd like to
have it halved.

When I stop
making
mistakes
maybe then I can get
mad
at other peoples.

When I was born
I cried
like a
baby.

Don't look up to
me
I am not
above you.

Don't look down on
me
I am not
beneath you.

Don't look at me as an
equal
We are not the same.

When you drive your car
do you
think about driving
or a million other things?

You treat me
the same.

When I was born
I cried
like a
baby.

Interesting...

I tell you that I
like
painting.

You say
"What is the difference
between
a tint and a shade?"

I tell you that I
like
poetry.

You say
"What is the difference
between
blank verse and free verse?"

but,

I couldn't answer either one very well.

I think you know the answer to both.

What I find
most
curious
is that you never asked me
who my favorite artist is
or
who my favorite poet is.

Thank you for the insight.

I just realized
that
I am
a very sensory oriented
person.

What comes to my
senses
I feel.

Yet,
I don't necessarily
think
about what
I've sensed.

Now is the
time
for me to start
thinking with my senses
and start
sensing with my thoughts.

"Listen,"
I said.
"I think you are beautiful.
but,
I'm not going to chase after you.
It's not that I'm not willing to
work
at something,
It's just that I'm not willing to
work
at getting something
that I'm willing to work at."

I seldom agree
on things I can't see
and stuff that I know
I'm not knowing
But, when I look in a glass
and think of my past
I know that it's time to get going.

When I'm
alone,
It gives me a chance to
collect
my thoughts,
after collecting them
I find out
that
I
wish I wasn't
alone.

I have never doubted
my ability to know
what
people are like
when I was
drunk
well,
I have doubted myself once --
but I was hung over
then.

I don't know where I'm going
I don't know where I've been
I figure I won't be there with you
I hope I'll never be here again.

I don't really fell that
comfortable
sitting in a bar stool
that's not facing the
bar.

I need a
beer
in front of me
or a
cigarette
in my hand.

Something I can mentally
hide behind,
focus on,

Something that separates
me from
the other people.
there's me,
the beer,
then the other people.

It's a nice little wall
to hide behind.

Instead of me
just sitting
uncomfortably
with my hands
on my knees
and my attention
on the person
across from me

wow

just what I need,
something else to work on.

I was looking over my poems
and noticed that some
of them
could have been worded
differently
but then,
those misplaced words
spoke to me.

they said,
"Matt, don't erase
me
I stand as a testament
to how life is
and the way things
work out sometimes
can't be changed."

So I left them.

I just wanted
to
write a
poem
with a French
title.

I figured
people
might turn to
it
and I would
be able to show
them how
intelligent and
insightful I was
because I
could use dome
French
words in a poem.

Kind of pretentious of me huh?

I guess that's life.

You ever lie in
bed
and think about
everything
you could have been?

all the other
fun jobs you could have had.
Artist?
missed that boat.
Writer?
I see that boat sailing in the harbor.
Musician?
I never even saw that boat.

Nobody ever dreams
about becoming an
Administrative Assistant
or
Middle Management

You think maybe
the people that got
on those boats
just took
them because they were
the easiest to
get
on?

I lie in my bed
watching all the people I
know sail away on all
these boats in my mind.
Financial Analyst
Accountant
Dentist
Graphic Artist
Programmer

How long will it be before I finally choose a boat

It just
occurred
to me that
what
we know about most
people is just
bullshit
talk.

We know what
they did the
night before.
or
about their bad
experience with
spiders,
or waiters
or vodka
or pot
or whatever
but,
nothing about themselves.

When they do try
and
let you in
by telling you
something
about
themselves
like how pathetic their
Christmas was, but
in a sick way,
the kind of enjoyed
the solitude
or
they tell you something
that happened to them
when they were
growing
up
our initial reaction is
aaaaaah!
fuck dude, why are you telling
me this?
I don't even know you that well.

exactly.

I was watching the
TV and saw a message
that was brought to me
by the broadcasting station
it told me
"Don't touch that dial"

I wonder how many people
have never touched
a dial on a TV and
I realize that I am getting
old.
I take a certain pride in
the fact that
even though people half my age
can beat the
crap out of me
in video games
I can still
read a watch with
hands on it.

so there...

look at the room
you
are sitting in
notice
the walls.
the window.
the ceiling.
the floor.
look into the
far corner of the
room.

see the space
between you
and
it.
Now
hold up your
index finger
and look at the finger print
notice the swirls
and grooves.

Did you notice how big
the room was compared
to your finger?

there is a lesson here...

Here's the thing about
beautiful people...

you know the ones I'm talking about.
the ones you can't help
staring at
the perfect
Face...
Body...
Curve of the neck.
the ones that make you numb
weak
unintelligible

THEY ARE FREAKS!

Normal people don't look that
good.
These beautiful people are
abnormal
nature gravitates towards a
norm.
these people lie outside of it.
they are the
weirdo's
they don't fit in.

remember that the next
time you are afraid
to talk to one

let me
let you
in on a little secret
I'm not very good at letting people
in on secrets.

If you understand it, you will get it.

I see a lot of people working
on their outside
buying clothes to make them look
sexy.
lifting weights.
kick-boxing.
eating
Healthy Choice
and
that's fine.

I'm working on the inside.

Give me Thomas Hobbes over Ralph Lauren.
Give me Renes Descartes over Tommy Hilfiger.

I spend more time with myself
than with other people
I take myself everywhere.
I'm not going to look this good forever.

The mind sees more than the eye.

Okay.
So I have a glass
of
Mystic Cliffs
(a nice Merlot that according
to the bottle goes well
with barbeque)
and I have my cigarette
and my coat on.
Just as I am about to open
the door to the outside
porch, I notice this
moth.
He looks pretty excited
about trying to get
to the
light inside the house
So I figure I'll
just give him a treat
and I turn on
the back porch light
and step outside
I watch him
bouncing around
flying all crazy like
happy as can be.

I sip my wine
smoke my cigarette
and smile

I watch this moth
have the time of his life
then my roommate comes
out
and the moth flies away.

you miss moments like that and you miss the point.

I tried to help the turtle to fly.

But he kept floundering in the
grass. He could do it
fairly well by hisself but
he didn't sem to want it bad
enough.

Then I saw the
snake.

I told the turtle to becareful
and showed him where it
was.

But he just kept flying
up in the air and falling back
down.

Then the snake got him.

I guess he just didn't want
it bad enough.

Then I saw a light brown mouse
dart out in front of the snake
and the snake darted after the mouse.

A buddy of mine said that
he saw the turtle get away.

I guess the snake didn't want it
bad enough.

The turtle go lucky this time.

I smiled and woke up happy.

So I go to
Publix
to buy a Thanksgiving day
TV dinner
.
You know the one I
was going
after.
The
Swanson
Hungry Man
Turkey
(mostly white meat)
dinner.

Thinking this would
be pretty pathetic

I figure I'd have it
with a glass of
cheap Merlot
but,
here's the really
sad
part

IT WAS THE LAST ONE!

I think this says something
pretty important
about
society.

Friday I decided that
I wanted to be
nice

I figured
it's easier
to be a dick
than to be
nice, so I would just pratice a little.

Anyway, I'm at a
bar
smoking my cigarette
Drinking my beer
And my buddy
asks me
why I'm being so
quiet.

I told him that I
took a Vow of Kindness

"Dude that's so much bullshit,
Why don't you
just
be yourself?"

okay.

"Go fuck yourself, Josh."

I guess that was the end of that.

I have a friend
that
hates to be
alone.

Because, this person says,
the solitude
makes them think
about things
they should
be doing
they should
have done
and it depresses them.

This depresses me.

I have been afraid to think
but now I find comfort in
thinking.

I'd like
to tell them how I changed
my perspective
but they would either
not take me seriously
or
think I'm crazy.

In either case
they wouldn't
listen.

fuck it.

whatever.
can't save everyone.

last night I
dreamt
I
died...
and I'm
wandering around
trying to
figure out
what to do next
and I met this guy
who said his name was
Houdini
so I said
"so dude,
tell me,
why do you want to go back?"

He gave me a blank look and left.

I just don't get this whole
dreaming thing.

It seems the lazy people
get taken advantage of
more than people
who work
hard.

Lazy people won't spend that
much effort to keep
the things they have.
Where as intense
people will work hard
to take what you have.

I don't necessarily agree
with the assumption
that this would make
the lazy people more
ethical.

They are both wrong.

To someone who can't create art,
I'm an artist.
To someone who can't write poetry,
I'm a poet.
To someone who doesn't read,
I'm an intellectual.

To someone who can create art,
I only scribble.
To someone who can write poetry,
I lack structure.
To someone who reads,
I know little.

To someone that can't be,
I am.

Think about it.

If I never learned to
count
I wouldn't say
"I don't have that much money."
Because I would have no
concept
that more is better

one, ten, hundred

Who cares? Those numbers
would meaning nothing to me.

As a kid you either
had or
you didn't

nothing was worth more
than anything else

pretty cool.

I think there is hope for us yet.

I've been hearing
on the news

about
hit-and-runs...
car-jackings...
that type of shit.

Then someone
tells me that they
hit a rabbit
and went back to see if it was
alive.

It was.

So they get a friend
and go down to
the vet
to see if it could be saved
but the vet
said that they didn't work
on wild rabbits
and the
friend freaks and says
"if this rabbit dies it will
  be on your hands!"

So the vet saves the rabbit

I think there is hope for us yet.

Oh....yeah, she was good-looking too.

I don't get where the
idea
that wise men are supposed to be
alone came from

The old man
at the top of a mountain
long grey beard
very wise.

It seems to me you need to
interact
with people in order to know
life.

Yet, when you interact with
people
you start thinking their thoughts
sharing their ideals

instead of your own.

fuck it, someone else finish this.

The more I
read
the more influenced I am by what I've
read.

The books find their
way into my
writing

I pick up another authors
cadence

which I think is bullshit
because I want to try without
influence.

I want it to be my own voice
not everyone else's that writes
these words

Too late for that I guess.

Be patient.

Get into a staring contest with
life
and I
gaurantee
that
life
will flinch first.

Then deal with it.

You might take this as being
'reactive'
instead of
'proactive'
I prefer to think of it as
'progressive'.

Even a butterfly in Japan can
flap its wings
and
cause a storm in New York.

The problem lies
in the fact that these words may subtlely,
unintentionally
mislead the
listener.

over the course of a conversation
the point is lost.

garbled.
mutilated.
jumbled.
misunderstood.

i live my life
how
i eat my food

one thing at a time.

if i eat
everything
all at once

i don't taste anything.

well,
only if you've never watched weeds grow,
through an old tire,
next to some funky looking water,
sitting in a crack,
of oil stained
concrete.

that's pretty fucking cool,

I mean shits growing there,

growing,
living

in between all that man-made shit
there is life

that's beautiful.

the world is only ugly if you can't see how beautiful this is.

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Crash! Bang! Boom!
Holy Shit! What the....
ohhh.
whew.
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watch how they drive

that maybe
the
only time when that
person
has any
power.

and they are wearing a

big

steel

mask

to hide behind.

watch how they treat others as they drive.

you know real person.

sometimes
you
make me so happy

that
I
forget to
write it down.

your best friends
are
like
your favorite
horses

you will
ride
hardest
the horses
you are most comfortable with

if you ride a horse too
hard
you will
kill it.

no matter what you do
no matter what you say
or
how cool
you think
you are

someone will say

"Man, what a jackass."

you may not hear it
but someone is saying it.

right now.

do you care?

Man, don't be such a jackass.

are you
where you want
to
be

if something
big
were to happen?

you never know if what you
are doing is going to be bound
to
some
historical event.

to be brought up in the
the
future.

When women stop carrying
mirrors with them
everyplace they go
maybe then
they can talk to me
about
liberation.

from his book of poetry War All The Time.

The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I'll hope forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated.

As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground,the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head, and throws it straight down with all of his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones.

"Nor am I without sin," he says to the people. "But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it."

from his book Speaker For The Dead.

If there is a witness to my little life,
to my tiny throes and struggles,
he sees a fool;
and it is not fine for gods to menace fools.

A warrior stood upon a peak and defied the stars.
A little magpie, happening there, desired the
soldier's plume, and so plucked it.

A learned man came to me once.
He said: "I know the way, - come."
And I was over joyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, we were
where my eyes were useless
and I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried: "I am lost."

I met a seer.
He held in his hands
the Book of Wisdom.
"Sir," I addressed him,
"Let me read."
"Child - " he began.
"Sir," I said,
"Think not that I am a child,
for already I know much
of that which you hold.
Aye, much."
He smiled.
Then he opened the book
and held it before me. -
Strange that I should have grown so suddenly blind.

And I became like those who stand as if
they have been mocked, who cannot
understand what has been said to them
and can't respond.

from the Inferno.

...Because one cannot so well grasp a thing and make it one's own when it is learnt from another person, as when one discovers it oneself.

Let him deceive me who may, but he shall never be able to cause me to be nothing, so long as I think that I am something, or to cause it one day to be true that I have never been, it now being true that I am.

from Discourse on Methods and the Meditations.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

from Catch-22

from A Little Woman.

Whatever they need, they take. You cannot call it taking it by force. They grab at something and you simply stand aside and leave them to it.

from An Old Manuscript.

"No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."

from Before the Law.

from the story Jewel of the Moon

If love be judged by most of its visible effects it looks more like a hatred than a freindship.

Silence is the safest policy if you are unsure of yourself.

To be slow-witted is sometimes enough to save one from a clever trickster.

Readiness to believe the worst without adequate examination comes from pride and laziness: we want to find the culprits but cannot be bothered to investigate the crimes.

It is less trouble for the right-thinking to let the wrong-headed have their way than it is to put them right.

Sometimes in life situations develop that only the half-crazy can get out of.

We are usually prevented from revealing our in most thoughts to our friends by mistrust, not of them but of ourselves.

As the stamp of greats minds is to suggest much in few words, so, contrawise, little minds have the gift of talking a great deal and saying nothing.

We are lazier in mind than in body.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side only.

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join a battle than to win.

I would prefer not to.

Ah, Bartleby! Ah, Humanity!

There is nothing that time does not absorb and devour,
and the events we do not know
are very little different from those that never happened.

That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck You" right under your nose. Try it sometime. I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say "Holden Caulfield" on it, and then what year I died, and then right under that it'll say "Fuck You." I'm positive, in fact.

from The Catcher in the Rye

I feel your censure on all his God-damns. That seems off to me. What is it but a low form of prayer when he or Les or anybody else God-damns everything? I can't believe God recognizes any form of blasphemy. It's just a prissy word invented by the clergy.

form Seymour - an Introduction

I'm just so sick of pedants and conceited little tearer-downers I could scream.

from Franny and Zooey

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

For as nature has equipped the lion with claws and teeth, the elephant with tusks, the wild boar with fangs, the bull with horns and the cuttlefish with ink, so it has equipped the power of  dissimulation as her her means of attack and defense, and has transformed into this gift all the  strength it has bestowed on man in the form of physical strength and the power of reasoning.

If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.

Every moment or our life belongs to the present only for a moment; then it belongs forever to the past. Every evening we are poorer by a day. We would perhaps grow frantic at the sight of this ebbing away of our short span of time were we not secretly conscious in the profoundest depths of our being that we share in the inexhaustible well of eternity, out of which we can forever draw new life and renewed time.

...our life is to be regarded as a loan received from death, with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.

As the biggest library if it is disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller if you have not thought it over for yourself.

But Gobineau was right; for man is the only animal which causes pain to others with no other object then causing pain.

Indeed, there is no surer sign of greatness than ignoring hurtful or insulting expressions by attributing them without further ado, like countless other errors, to the speakers lack of knowledge and thus merely taking note of them without feeling them.

...freedom of the press must be regarded as a permit to sell poison: poison of the mind and poison of the heart. For what cannot be put into the heads of the ignorant and credulous masses?

There is no absurdity so palpable that one could not fix it firmly in the head of every man on earth provided one began to imprint it before his sixth year by ceaselessly rehearsing it before him with solemn earnestness. For training of men, as with animals, can be completely successful only in early youth.

from The Witch Of Atlas

He nodded affirmatively. "It is a point of honor with me. If there is a cliff, I must jump off it...just in case I should chance to fly."

from Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer Book 2 Lords of Destruction

from Philosophical Dictionary

-Tao Te Ching - Two

Those who know do not talk
Those who talk do not know

-Tao Te Ching- Fifty-Six

That which shrinks
Must first expand.
That which fails
Must first be strong
That which is cast down
Must first be raised.
Before receiving
There must be giving.

This is called the perception of the nature of things.
Soft and weak over come hard and strong.

-Tao Te Ching- Thirty-Six

"Why?"

Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-developement. To realize one's own nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar, but their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion - these are the two things that govern us.

from The Picture of Dorian Gray